Blueberry French Toast Casserole

This Blueberry French Toast Casserole is made with French bread, creamy custard, fresh blueberries, and a delicious, brown sugar streusel. It is an easy, scrumptious overnight french toast casserole that is perfect for potlucks, Christmas morning, and everything in between.

The maple and vanilla custard soaks and flavors each piece of bread, pairing perfectly with cream cheese, sweet juicy blueberries, and buttery streusel.

overnight french toast casserole with cream cheese and blueberries, with a piece cut out, french toast bake.

This easy-peasy make-ahead breakfast stuffs everything that you love about warm blueberry muffins into a baked French toast casserole. It’s such a perfectly simple comfort food that tastes great any time of the year.

During the peak of summer, you can use fresh blueberries, or in the winter pull out a bag of frozen blueberries. If you aren’t as big of a blueberry fan as we are, feel free to try a different berry, or even use mixed berries.

Another simple variation would be to sprinkle a hefty dose of lemon zest over the top of the blueberries, just before adding the cinnamon brown sugar streusel. For a real treat, try serving this blueberry breakfast dream with your favorite syrup and a big dollop of whipped cream. Yum!

how to make blueberry french toast bake, egg custard being poured over the overnight french toast bake

Key Ingredients

French Bread – you’ll need enough cubed bread to fill up a 9”x13” baking pan. When we have made this recipe, it takes about 10-12 slices or ¾ of a loaf of French bread. You could also substitute challah if you wanted to try something a little different. No matter what, it’s best if your bread is slightly stale so that it will soak up the liquid better. Store any remaining bread cubes in an airtight container to use for croutons, bread crumbs or another batch of French toast bake.
Eggs – any kind of large whole eggs will work.
Milk – we prefer whole milk, but you can substitute 2% if you’d like.
Maple Syrup – you can use all maple syrup, or else substitute a touch of honey for some of the maple syrup.
Cream Cheese – this should be cut into ½” pieces.
Blueberries – you can use fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries for this breakfast casserole.
Butter – this will taste best with unsalted butter. You can use either room temperature butter, or else cut cold butter into small cubes.
Brown Sugar – we use light brown sugar but you can use dark brown sugar if you want a little more molasses flavor.

blueberry french toast casserole with streusel topping before baking, blueberry breakfast recipe.

How to Make Blueberry Baked French Toast

Spray or grease a 9 x 13″ baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Place the cubed French bread, in an even layer, into the 9 x 13″ baking dish/casserole dish. You want the bread to fill all the way to the top of the dish.
In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, and whisk until the egg yolks are broken and all of the ingredients are well combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the cubed bread.
Place the cream cheese chunks evenly over the top of the bread mixture, then sprinkle the blueberries on top.
In a small mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, make the streusel topping by adding the flour, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Use a spatula or spoon to mix until the butter chunks in the streusel are pea-sized.
Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the French toast bake, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. You can make it ahead for 4-48 hours.
When you’re ready to cook the French toast bake, be sure to take the casserole out of the fridge and let it come to room tempreture while you’re preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Be sure to allow the baking dish to come close to room temperature before baking (particularly if you use a glass dish), or at least 30 minutes.
Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the edges of the French toast bake are golden brown and it is cooked through completely. Let cool slightly before slicing, then serve with the syrup of your choice and whipped cream. Enjoy!

baked blueberry french toast bake recipe, blueberry breakfast casserole on a plate with fresh blueberries and whipped cream on top, best breakfast recipe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I freeze French toast bake?

Yes! You can freeze this unbaked breakfast casserole if you want to make it even further ahead of time. Just prep everything up until baking, wrap well in both plastic wrap and aluminum foil and store frozen in the baking dish for up to 1 month.

The day before baking, pull the casserole from the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. The next morning, pull out to room temperature and bake as directed.

How To Make This French Toast Bake The Morning Of

Morning Of: If you don’t have time for an overnight casserole, you can still make it work – just give yourself an additional 20 minutes.
-Add the 1” bread cubes to a large bowl and pour the egg and milk mixture over.
-Toss lightly and let sit at room temp for at least 10 minutes.
-Toss again and let sit for at least another 10 minutes or so before you put it into your baking dish.
-You can now add your streusel topping to your oven-baked french toast and bake as directed.

What should I serve French toast casserole with?

This French toast bake is 100% delicious as is. But, it never hurts to spruce things up a bit. Some homemade whipped cream would be amazing on this, as would Mixed Berry Syrup, Lemon Syrup, Coconut Syrup, Cranberry Orange Sauce, Buttermilk Syrup, and Strawberry Sauce.

Tips for Making the Best Blueberry French Toast Bake

There are a lot of types of bread that will work for this recipe. You can use french bread, Challah, Brioche, or even day-old cinnamon rolls for this recipe. Use your favorite and don’t be afraid to try a new bread from the day-old section of the bakery.
Substitute the blueberries for strawberries, raspberries, or peaches.
Or you can leave all the fruit out for a classic french toast bake casserole and serve it with simple maple syrup.
You can make this overnight breakfast casserole without the cream cheese, just omit it from the recipe and bake as directed.
Add your favorite homemade syrup or sauce. Top with whipped cream.
You can also make this with frozen blueberries.
You can also add 2 teaspoons for fresh lemon zest for a lemon blueberry french toast bake recipe.

Storing Instructions

Refrigerator: If you have any leftovers, wrap well in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To reheat: you can warm individual portions in the microwave, or else cover the top with aluminum foil (so that it doesn’t brown too much) and reheat in a 325-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until warmed through.

More Breakfast Casserole Recipes You’ll Love

Easy Sausage Egg Biscuit Casserole Recipe

Apple Cinnamon French Toast Bake {Video}

Easy Baked Denver Omelet Breakfast Casserole

Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole

More Breakfast Casserole Recipes

More Blueberry Recipes

This Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast Casserole stuffs everything that you love about warm blueberry muffins into a yummy breakfast casserole. Your entire family will love this super delicious overnight breakfast casserole, made with French bread, creamy custard, fresh blueberries and a deliciously buttery brown sugar streusel.

Email This Recipe

Get a link to this recipe emailed so you can save it for later + get all the latest Carefree Kitchen recipes!

By submitting this form you consent to receive emails from The Carefree Kitchen

Categories:

Breakfast, Breakfast Casseroles, Christmas, Easter, Fall Recipes, French Toast, Nut-Free, Spring Recipes, Summer Recipes, Vegetarian, Winter Recipes,

Blueberry French Toast Bake